concentration camp

American  

[kon-suhn-trey-shuhn kamp] / ˌkɒn sənˈtreɪ ʃən ˌkæmp /

noun

1. a guarded compound for the mass detention without hearings or the imprisonment without trial of civilians, as refugees, members of ethnic minorities, political opponents, etc.

2. a Nazi prison camp or death camp prior to and during World War II.

---

concentration camp British  

noun

1. a guarded prison camp in which nonmilitary prisoners are held, esp one of those in Nazi Germany in which millions were exterminated

---

concentration camp Cultural  

1. A place for assembling and confining political prisoners and enemies of a nation. Concentration camps are particularly associated with the rule of the Nazis in Germany, who used them to confine millions of Jews (see also Jews) as a group to be purged from the German nation. Communists, Gypsies, homosexuals, and other persons considered undesirable according to Nazi principles, or who opposed the government, were also placed in concentration camps and eventually executed in large groups. (See Holocaust.)

---

Etymology

Origin of concentration camp

First recorded in 1900–05, applied originally to camps where noncombatants were placed during the Boer War

Compare meaning

How does concentration-camp compare to similar and commonly confused words? Explore the most common comparisons:

• gulag vs. concentration camp
• concentration camp vs. death camp

Example Sentences

Local activist Luciel Adams also warns that the project should be respectful of a rocky peninsula near Lüderitz that was once the site of the Shark Island concentration camp.

From BBC • Mar. 11, 2026

She was detained in the Soviet gulag system, then later held in the Nazi concentration camp system.

From Slate • Feb. 17, 2026

On some sites such content was posted once a minute, said Groschek, who works at memorial sites in Hamburg, including the Neuengamme concentration camp.

From Barron's • Jan. 27, 2026

Can you tell me more about how integrated the concentration camp system is with the “normal,” “non-emergency” parts of the carceral state?

From Salon • Jan. 26, 2026

That was what life in a concentration camp had made of me .

From "Night" by Elie Wiesel

Related Words

• gas chamber
• gulag
• internment camp
• prison camp